ABC News reports via msn.com that a rogue wave damaged the Viking Polaris expedition ship in the Drake Passage south of Ushuaia, Argentina, breaking windows, killing one passenger and injuring four more in non-life-threatening ways. The ship was returning from a voyage to the Antarctic peninsula.
The Drake Passage - 500 miles of open sea between Cape Horn and Antarctica - is some of the roughest water on the planet. The DrsC made that trip some years ago and we had an injury happen to a fellow passenger as well.
In rough water, she fell and broke her elbow. The ship’s doctor sedated her and strapped it up, and we diverted to a Chilean Air Force base on King George Island where she and her husband were flown out to a hospital in Punta Arenas. We learned later the air ambulance flight cost them $15,000, covered by required travel insurance.
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Speaking of rogue waves, the Grand Princess was hit by a rogue wave sailing northward off the west coast of Italy en route to Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. This happened in the latter part of November, 2008, at around 1 a.m.
The wave broke windows up on the Lido deck, nearly 100 ft. above the waterline. We were ashore waiting to board her in Civitavecchia and we boarded several hours later than scheduled as they were doing some quick repairs.
We talked to people who were continuing from one cruise to the next and they reported the rogue wave was quite an experience. The wave basically left the ship dead in the water for nearly an hour until the crew could get the power up and running again, with the result that the Grand arrived late to Civitavecchia.
